Sophie von Knorring

She was born the offspring of the noble major Christer Göran Zelow, chamberlain at the royal court, and Helena Sophia Gripenstedt, at the manor Gräfsnäs on 28 September 1797.

She and her four younger sisters was given an education regarded suitable for a female noble before marriage and debuting in aristocratic high society life: German, English, French, Italian, Music, painting and dance, all provided for by private teachers at home.

This was a particularly lively society season in Stockholm, which is estimated to have affected her and her work: she was introduced to Madame de Staël, for whom she felt deep admiration.

Bremer has described von Knorring as a frivolous, witty and vivacious aristocrat with a consuming passion, who only succumbed to religion on her death bed.

[5] Her foremost professional rival, Emilie Flygare-Carlén, accused her in her novel Kamrer Lassman for being a seductress of youth and for having fault morals.

Alongside Carl Jonas Love Almqvist, August Blanche, Fredrika Bremer and Emilie Flygare-Carlén, Sophie von Knorring dominated the Swedish realistic literature in the 1830s and 1840s.